Waste not! How to stop throwing away good food and save money

2017-09-12T21:19:00.000Z

Dan Barber

TODAY

share

tweet

pin

email

In the U.S., up to 40 percent of all food that's grown and sold goes uneaten each year, at an annual cost of $218 billion to consumers. Individual households are responsible for a whopping 43 percent of this waste — more than restaurants, grocery stores or any other single part of the domestic supply chain.

It's a problem that Save The Food says costs the average family of four at least $1,500 per year.

Juice-pulp burger, broccoli stalks: Recipes that don't waste food

Play Video
- 3:35

Juice-pulp burger, broccoli stalks: Recipes that don't waste food

Play Video
- 3:35

To raise awareness about the growing crisis, Dan Barber chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, has teamed up with Save The Food — a partnership between the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Ad Council that's on a mission to combat food waste — to share a message about using edible scraps that would otherwise be thrown out. In a new video, the award-winning chef and his team surprise two foodies with hand-delivered meals made from leftover food that would have otherwise been tossed.

Barber, who appears in the upcoming "Wasted!" — a documentary produced by Anthony Bourdain that reveals the true costs associated with global food waste — stops by the TODAY Kitchen to share two healthy recipes that make the most of delicious ingredients that are usually thrown away.

He shows us how to make a tasty burger made with vegetable juice pulp and a tender broccoli stalk salad with fresh herb stems.

Broccoli stems are usually overlooked — and are often tossed out — once the florets have been eaten. But treated right, the stalks can be turned into a delicious side dish. Plus, the crumbs from the bottom of a near-empty chip bag add the perfect salty, crunchy topping.